After Rebel Attacks, Southern Philippines Town Struggles With Floods

Residents of Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines had barely begun to recover from a deadly attack by Muslim rebels when floods caused by days of heavy rains inundated their already damaged city on Tuesday.

Heavy monsoon rains have pounded the town since Friday, raising water levels up to a foot and a half in some places. So far the floods have killed at least three people and displaced more than 8,800.

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European Pressphoto Agency

Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco, center, with military commander General Carmelo Valmoria, second from left, look over damage on Sept.30 due to rebel attacks in the southern Philippines. Now the mayor is battling damage from floods.

Mayor Isabelle Climaco suspended classes and government work on Tuesday, and said the city’s disaster management body would ask the city council to issue a state of calamity for Zamboanga to free up funds for assistance to residents most affected by the deluge.

“This is another crisis,” she said, referring to last month’s battle with rebels. “But we should remain strong and united in confronting all these trials and challenges.”

Television footage has shown residents swimming in neck-deep, brown water, while houses in low-lying areas have been totally submerged.

Rain has also flooded the runway at the international airport, forcing the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to suspend all flights to and from Zamboanga. Officials there said they would issue another advisory early Wednesday to announce if flights will remain suspended.

“The sun hasn’t shone on the city for five days,” Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said during a television interview. Soliman just returned to Manila from Zamboanga, where she has been since the first day of the Muslim rebel attack.

That attack began on Sept. 9, when Muslim rebels belonging to a local faction of the Moro National Liberation Front attacked the city, resulting in a three-week standoff with security forces that forced more than 100,000 people from their homes.

Many of the residents are still in evacuation centers, since their houses were either razed by escaping rebels or badly damaged by the firefights. Soldiers are still combing some of the villages where the battles took place to check for remaining rebels or unexploded munitions.

Adding to the difficulty of accommodating a new round of evacuees – this time from the flooding — Soliman said many evacuation centers are now under water and evacuees have had to be transferred to other areas.

The Philippines Election Commission has suspended local elections for Zamboanga City scheduled for Oct. 28, but says village elections for the rest of the Philippines will proceed as scheduled.

Heavy rains have also caused flooding and landslides in the central Visayas and other parts of Mindanao, the resource-rich region in the southern Philippines whose development has been stalled by decades of conflict between separatist Muslim rebels and government security forces.

More than 58,000 people have been displaced nationally by the floods, while around 24,000 have taken refuge inside government evacuation centers, according to the national disaster management agency.

On Tuesday, the national weather bureau said a low pressure area was spotted east of the country, over the Pacific Ocean, that could intensify the rains.

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